JHSump

Maybe 20 years ago I am assisting in coaching my daughter's coach pitch baseball team (yeah, I was coaching, and yeah my daughter wanted to play baseball, not softball). In a practice a kid makes a nice snag on a grounder at 3B. The head coach says, "You looked like Brooks on that one." The kid asks, "What, you mean Garth Brooks?"

In my town, we have what is called "the rush minute"!

All that sounds... hauntingly... familiar. I think I've worked games where Todd is the head coach. Seriously! Not just some other "Todd." That actual Todd. hahahaha Please PM me FleasOf1000Camels. If it's not the same Todd, then it's even funnier!

Probably a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." That father in the stands was probably either a father of a player on the other team, or a father involved in a personal dispute with the coach about playing time for his son, or some other such thing. I would not read too much into his "support" of you. I restricted a HS varsity HC the other night, in the 2nd inning, after he argued a RLI ruling and continued to do so after I told him "that's enough." I proceeded to the written warning and restriction. Some fan in the stands (clearly on the HC's side) barked at me for the remainder of the game any time a BR was outside the running lane on routine ground balls to, for example, F6. After the game, on the way to my car with my partner, a father for the other team said, "Good call," in what was a clear reference to the RLI ruling. I just said thanks and kept going. Often their reaction just depends on their side. But, I'm sure you know all this. It's still interesting to hear these stories. Thanks for sharing.

I'm REALLY old school. From the Knickerbockers rules: 11TH. Three balls being struck at and missed and the last one caught, is a hand-out; if not caught is considered fair, and the striker bound to run. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/rule11.shtml

Hahaha...and we all know it turned out well for the Godfather.

I don't know what you mean by "they threw out this question." I got it wrong on my 2016 exam, and in reviewing my exam just now, it is still marked as wrong. (My only wrong question. My fault, of course. But I was laughing too hard at the first sentence to read the rest of it accurately.)

Sorry to hear that Dave. But as others have said find a good sports medicine orthopedist. Then do the rehab. You can make it back.

Yes, of course! So, I answered that the batter is out. And, I got it right! So, the test writers got it right!

I don't use an indicator on the bases. I have tried to use an indicator in my pocket to keep the outs. But when I reach into my pocket, the indicator never seems to be in the correct orientation to make that a simple task. I have to fumble with it. Like using the sweatbands or a ring, I have found a simple solution to keeping the outs. I'm sure this idea is not new, but I haven't seen it mentioned in this thread. I have two small magnetic marbles in my left pocket at the beginning of a half inning. At one out, I transfer one of the marbles to my right pocket. At two outs, the other goes into my right pocket. At any moment, by touching the outsides of my pockets I am immediately reminded, if I have forgotten, of the number of outs. I use magnetic marbles because they stick together, weakly, which eliminates any clicking-together noise they might otherwise make when I move about. Each magnetic marble is a hollow plastic sphere with a small magnet inside. I found them in my kids toys.

This question is up again in the 2016 exam I am taking. And I am going to say the batter is out! It will be interesting if I get the question wrong.

Something is wrong with pitcher in this question! The pitcher places his pivot foot on the pitching plate with the toe of the pivot foot in front of a line through the front edge of the plate and the toe of his pivot foot behind the back edge. His non-pivot foot is front of a line extending through the front edge of the pitching plate. a) This is an illegal pitching position. b) This is a legal wind-up position. c) This is a legal set position.

As I looked over the topics on this forum, tonight, I passed over this one without immediate recognition. I see and hear "Go Hokies!" almost every day. But, then, it dawned on me that, hey, but this is the umpire forum! hahaha Go Hokes, indeed!

After seeing that Diamondbacks pitcher step back off the rubber and throw a "pitch" I am widening the bounds of my imagination.

WTF was F1 thinking? "Ah, this will surprise them!"

Hahaha...all you guys look the same with those striped shirts! Especially since the resolution in the video is not very good. And, you're not wearing your bucket! I'm going say you're the one running down the sideline and then shaking his head yes --- I imagine you have good speed, and it looks like you are hustling and explicitly indicating to everyone concerned that the player did not step out of bounds. Just what I would expect!

Which ref is you?

The level of the MLB network "expert" discussion of rules and umpiring is generally no better than what you would get if you took three random Joes off the street. But maybe that is what the MLB network is shooting for. I can imagine two actual random Joes in a bar somewhere, watching this exchange on the MLB network. One turns to the other and says, "Didn't I just say that last week!?" The other replies, "You did! You did!" Then they both agree the MLB network tells it like it is. This sort of discussion by the "experts" there makes me wonder if the *rest* of their discussions of baseball (e.g., playing, strategy,...) are also ill-informed. I do like that they show lots of games.

Glad you posted this, @Thunderheads ! I had that game on, in the background while I was doing something else, and noticed the umpires were conferring (and I could hear them) only as it ended! Thanks!

Another example of the mask not spinning. It didn't seem to budge at all! (Previous examples were discussed on the thread http://umpire-empire.com/index.php?/topic/63299-ouch/)

The typical LHB's called zone is wider on the outside than the actual strike zone, and wider than called on either side of the plate for the RHB. And, the typical LHB's called zone on the inside is right on the actual zone. Hamari seems to work consistently within those typical called zones. Now, this is a comment about the typical zone, not Hamari's: Some are saying it a dominant eye thing. And, it might be. But I have a different hypothesis about why the typical LHB's zone is different than the typical RHB's zone. I think it could be because all F2's are right handed. So, pitches just outside to LHBs are received (framed if you wish) like strikes by F2's --- they don't have to extend their arm across their body. Furthermore, pitches just off the inside to LHB's can't be framed as well, and the PU is right on top of those --- they are easy to call balls. What about RHB's? Pitches just off the inside to RHBs are framed well --- thus the RHB zone is extended in a bit. What about pitches just off the outside to RHBs? Well, I don't have a great understanding of that, given F2's being right-handed, but that might just be our normal propensity to have the zone extend outside a bit.

@MadMax wow! Where did you read this? I'd be interested in reading about this.

Ouch is right. In both cases the mask hardly moved on his head. In the first case the ball did not seem to hit dead on, so shouldn't the mask have spun a bit?

He does have to deliver without interruption, but if you watch carefully, he is always moving something at every moment. Even in the second case he is not a statue.

Why?